Interpol: Marauder review – relaxed if variable post-punk stylings

After 2014’s El Pintor breathed new life into what had seemed a stagnating career, Interpol return with their sixth album. They’ve brought in an outside producer for the first time since 2007’s Our Love to Admire and counterintuitively it’s Dave Fridmann, better known for the kaleidoscopic sensory overload of the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev than for the more muted hues that have defined the New York trio. Fridmann’s influence isn’t at all overbearing – this still sounds very much like an Interpol album – but their post-punk stylings are warmer and more relaxed now. The most noticeable change is lyrically, Paul Banks introducing autobiographical elements for the first time, and sounding slightly less detached as a consequence.

Marauder certainly starts strongly: the gently lolloping rhythm of If You Really Love Nothing undercutting a beautifully mournful Banks vocal line, and The Rover is even better, an irresistible momentum sharing space with a winning chorus. Flight of Fancy and Number 10 impress too, but elsewhere the quality is more variable: Daniel Kessler’s delicate guitar lines aside, the slower Stay in Touch lacks any light or shade. The equally uninspired closer is called It Probably Matters; on this evidence it probably doesn’t.